Silent Arrow today announced it has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase II contract in the amount of $1.25M focused on the Silent Arrow CLS-300 (“Contested Logistics System, 300nm Range”) powered cargo drone to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX, have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now Silent Arrow will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.
The CLS-300 is based on the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world’s first heavy payload, autonomous and attritable cargo delivery aircraft designed to carry 1,500 lbs. of cargo over 35 nautical miles when deployed from cargo aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin C-130, Boeing C-17 and Airbus A400M. Whereas the GD-2000 is a glider, the new CLS-300 can travel nearly 10 times as far by utilizing an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are inexpensive enough to allow the entire cargo drone to be attritable. In addition to being air droppable, it will also be capable of taking off from the ground including from unimproved surfaces, naval vessels and other launch points.
“We’d like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFWERX, AFRL and our Air Force Customer and End-User organizations for expanding our successful partnership by awarding this follow-on Phase II,” said Chip Yates, Silent Arrow’s Founder and CEO. “We look forward to building on our Phase I propulsion test success as we prepare a number of full-scale aircraft for flight tests in Q3 and Q4 of 2025.”
The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development.
As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370 military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,200 new contracts worth more than $4.7 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability.
The Silent Arrow® product line consists of five attritable, autonomous cargo delivery aircraft capable of carrying 350 to 2,000 pounds of emergency, disaster relief and humanitarian response supplies anywhere in the world on short notice. The Silent Arrow GD-2000, Widebody, SA-PGB, CLS-200 and CLS-300 provide a wide array of contested logistics capabilities to the warfighter. Silent Arrow’s engineering team has been awarded more than 22 patents, 6 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) aircraft world records and 2 FAI Louis Bleriot medals for disruptive contributions to the aerospace industry. In 2021 Silent Arrow® was selected as a finalist for the Robert J. Collier Trophy as the “Greatest Achievement in Aeronautics or Astronautics in America,”.
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